11/06/03

Rick Peters hasn't served in the military, doesn't have kids in the military and doesn't make his living through the military. But for years, he and his wife, Elizabeth, have shared a love for veterans and their stories.

"Our life in this country is protected by people who gave their lives to protect it," said Rick Peters, an investment adviser who lives in Wilsonville. "What they believe in is stronger than their fear of being injured or worse. That's the kind of person I enjoy being associated with; they understand about our country, and they respect our country in a way that is honorable."

The Peterses are organizing a Nov. 15 event, "Freedom is Not Free: A Celebration of Liberty," to honor veterans. It will include music and speeches by Kennie Namba, a Portland resident who enlisted in the Army during World War II -- while his family was in an internment camp for Japanese Americans -- and Don Malarkey, a World War II veteran whose story was featured in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers."

The Peterses, members of a Christian band -- he plays lead guitar and keyboard, she sings and plays guitar -- plan to perform a Celtic-style piece they've set to the poem "In Flanders Fields," composed during World War I by a Canadian Army lieutenant colonel.

They've also organized a chorus of volunteer singers who will perform patriotic tunes such as "America the Beautiful" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The free event begins at 2 p.m. in Bauman Auditorium at George Fox University, 414 N. Meridian St. in Newberg.

"I feel like veterans must be honored because they're men and women who lay down their lives for our freedoms," said Elizabeth Peters, a communications manager with the Oregon Restaurant Association. "The freedoms we have in this country we take for granted so much."

Neither has been untouched by war. Elizabeth Peters' father served in World War II as an Army medic in the Philippines. Rick Peters remembers writing, when he was a teenager, a letter to a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. The pilot was a friend of his brother's at Medford High School. After the soldier was honorably discharged, he thanked Peters for thinking of him and took him for a ride in a new bright yellow Ford Mustang.

Peters also remembers getting mad at people who cursed and spit at veterans when they limped home from Southeast Asia.

"It wasn't the veterans' fault," he said. "The veterans went because they had to."

The event will include a presentation of colors, the national anthem, a prayer by a military chaplain, music and recordings of interviews with people who have escaped oppressive governments.

"I'm concerned we're losing our heritage," Rick Peters said. "The memory of what happened needs to be preserved." -- Lisa Grace Lednicer